Alkan's Symphony for solo piano is part of his magnum opus, the twelve Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op 39, which was dedicated to musicologist François-Joseph Fétis.
Composer Biography
Alkan's career reached an early peak in the 1830s, but it was disrupted in 1839, likely due to the birth of his illegitimate son, E-M Delaborde.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Alkan once confessed that if he had to live his life over, he would love to set the entire Bible to music, from the first word to the last.
Composer Biography
Alkan was a prolific translator of the Bible, claiming to have translated over three-quarters of it for his own use, including all canonical books and the Apocrypha.
Critical Reception
The Trois Morceaux dans le genre pathétique were criticized by Robert Schumann in 1838, who found them lacking in art and imagination, a review that greatly annoyed Alkan.
Performer Biography
Marc-André Hamelin, the pianist on this recording, was honored as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003 and a Chevalier de l'Ordre du Québec in 2004.
Compositional Technique
Ronald Smith suggested that some passages in Alkan's 'Aime-moi' seemed to be written for an "extinct race of seven-fingered pianists" due to their immense difficulty.
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